A SUDANESE Christian woman who faces death threats after a court cleared her of apostasy has been charged with forgery after trying to leave the country, a lawyer says.

“She is arrested,” Mohanad Mustafa told AFP on Wednesday.

The charge against Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 26, relates to the travel documents she was carrying when authorities stopped the family from leaving Sudan on Tuesday following an annulment of her apostasy death sentence.

Ishag is also charged with providing false information, Mustafa said.

She was detained by national security agents at Khartoum airport, despite the presence of US diplomats who were escorting her and her family, her American husband Daniel Wani said.

Police are investigating the authenticity of her travel documents, Mr Wani said.

“We are supposed to be there,” he said, insisting there is nothing wrong with the travel documents.

Mr Wani said the family are fearful of staying in Sudan where they are facing

death threats from extremist Muslims.

“We are worried. That’s why we want to get out of here as soon as possible,” he said on Wednesday from a Khartoum police station where his wife was being questioned.

The family and its two children, including a baby girl born while Ms Ishag was on death row, were moved to the police station later on Tuesday.

New child ... Meriam Ibrahim Ishag breastfeeds her newborn baby girl that she gave birth to in jail.Source: AP

Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman told AFP the woman should have used a Sudanese passport, but her lawyer said she does not have one.

“That is the whole problem, she took a foreign document for travelling,” he said.

“What she has done is an illegal act.”

However, Osman suggested the situation can be resolved.

“I’m sure she will clear herself, get the passport and she can travel. No problem.”

A lower court judge sentenced Ms Ishag to death for apostasy on May 15, in a case that raised questions of religious freedom and sparked an outcry from Western governments and rights groups.

An appeal court freed her on Monday from the women’s prison where she had been detained with her children, but she immediately went into hiding because of the death threats.

Kau Nak, charge d’affaires at the South Sudanese embassy in Khartoum, also insisted Ishag’s papers are valid.

“I’m the one who issued that travel document to her,” Kau Nak said.

“My signature is on the back of the document.”

He said neither the police nor any other official had contacted him about its authenticity.

“It is a normal document we give to our citizens when they are returning home. We gave that to her and her kids”, Kau Nak said, explaining that Ms Ishag is entitled to the document because her husband and children are South Sudanese.

Family fears ... Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag with her husband Daniel Wani, a US citizen originally from South Sudan (L), her newborn baby and the couple's 20-month-old son, one of her lawyers Mohanad Mustafa (R), and other members of the legal team.Source: AFP

Kau Nak said he signed the papers, which are valid for three months, on Tuesday morning after they provided all relevant documentation including a marriage certificate.

There are no direct flights to the United States from Sudan, which has been under an American trade embargo since 1997.

In Washington on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf downplayed the incident and said US officials would work with Khartoum to ensure the family would soon be on its way.

“The government has assured us of their safety. The embassy has and will remain highly involved in working with the family and the government.”

Born to a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother, Ms Ishag was convicted by the lower court under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.

When Ms Ishag was five her father abandoned the family, and she was raised according to her mother’s faith.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum said she joined the Catholic Church shortly before she married.

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